Your Bid for Tax-Exempt Status Was Successful!

Governments are still trying to figure out whether and how to tax online sales, but in the meantime a trade group representing e-sellers has gained nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service:

An organization of eBay and online sellers announced it has received notification from the IRS of its approval of the organization as a 501(c)(6) Nonprofit/Tax-Exempt Organization. Steven Grossberg, President and founder of the Internet Merchants Association (IMA), said, “We are extremely proud of this accomplishment as it appears the IMA is the first and only trade association connected to e-commerce to be officially sanctioned by the IRS as a 501(c)(6) Nonprofit/Tax-Exempt Organization.”

IMA is touting its new status as evidence to its members that its policies and procedures are transparent, that no leader of the group is benefiting financially from his participation, and that its leadership is chosen through fair, open elections. There’s an interesting back story to the association’s efforts to attain nonprofit status, according to the trade pub AuctionBytes:

IMA was formed in 2006 by several members of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA) after that group announced it was no longer pursuing non-profit status and experienced accountability and communication issues. Both organizations were founded by eBay sellers.

So will IMA use its new status as a way to lure members away from PESA? It sure sounds as if the association hopes that its designation as a nonprofit will help boost its numbers. Who knew that “not-for-profit” had some cachet to it? | 501(c)